FOXBORO -- Might the Patriots be playing with a little extra chip on their shoulder this season due to the fact that their quarterback was suspended by the league for four games?
"I think every guy's played with a chip on their shoulder this entire season . . . It's just who we are as human beings," tight end Martellus Bennett said. "You can't play this game without a chip on your shoulder. From all the players -- guys that got cut, guys that got traded, guys that feel like they got passed up by other teams -- when you play this game you gotta have a chip.
"Everybody's chip might be a little bit different. Like Lays. You might be a barbeque guy, you might be a sour cream and onion guy, but as long as you have your chip that's what gets you where you need."
But did NFL commissioner Roger Goodell provide the team with an extra chip with the way he and the league treated Brady?
"Nah," Bennett said. "Goodell looks like a Pringle guy. I don't consider those chips."
Bennett says that his personal "chip" has nothing to do with the league office. He has more than enough motivation at home, he explained.
"[Mine] is my family," he said. "I play for my family first and foremost. My daughter and my wife are what drive me to go. My brothers and my mom and my dad. I play for my family. That's why I get the edge than a lot of guys out there because I feel like if they try to stop me, they try to take food out of my daughter's mouth at the same time.
New England Patriots
"I'm gonna have to pay for college, I'm gonna have to pay for a wedding at some point too so I gotta go out there and perform at a high level and a lot of guys try to stop me from being able to do that. That's my chip. Part of it's, you know, everybody says, 'He's not this, he's not that, he can't do this, he can't do this or he can't do that.' I just go out there and show that I can every single week."